365/365 - Jim - The End

( f/11 105mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Well, this is the last photo of my 365 day project. I didn't miss even 1 day, so it was a big success. Over the year I took over 30,200 photos which averages to about 82 photos per day. Over the past few days I have been trying to figure out what my last photo would be. I finally came up with this idea and didn't see any similar ones on flickr, so I was assured that it was somewhat original. I used my 105mm macro lens to photograph the dice. Then used my 24-70mm lens to photograph myself attempting to fake lean. I merged the two with Photoshop and cropped it down a little bit.

I would like to thank everyone that followed my blog and left comments. Without that support, I might not have followed through. There were many times that I had a hard time coming up with an idea for a photo, but somehow did. Even if it was just before midnight. Some of those were actually some of my best work. I feel like I learned a lot over the year and a lot has happened. We added my little boy Nolan to my family who is 9 months old already. We also have an addition that is coming soon. Complete with a photography studio/office where I will continue to take photos and try to turn this hobby into something more.

What is next? Well, with the studio coming, I will be blogging about that and my possible start up photography business called GrayRox Studios. Maybe I will do some instructional videos on photography and show you how I do what I do. Maybe I will start a new project like this, but just not as intense. Like 52 photowalks or 12 photo expeditions. In the meantime, I will still post photos here. It just won't be as often.

Thanks again everyone! I hope you enjoyed viewing my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.

289/365 - Jim - I Droste Myself

( f/11 50mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I only have a couple days left on my demo of Photo Brush 5, so I figured I would do another droste. I set the tripod up and took a shot of myself with my fingers in a circle over most of my face, then selected that area to do the droste. I will be camping the next four days, so you won't see any photos until Sunday. Hopefully I will get some nice photos!

252/365 - Jim - Peek-a-boo

( f/11 56mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I saw someone did this on flickr and I knew right away what my photo would be today. I feel that I must keep my fans creeped out by my portraits because it seems every time I post one I get one or more comments about it being creepy. I took two pictures and merged them together with Photoshop. It wasn't very difficult at all.

250/365 - Jim - Vimeo Profile

( f/11 56mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I wanted to get a profile picture for my Vimeo account, so I had Carol help me. She took two pictures which took forever and I didn't really like either of them. It was frustrating for me to see Carol looking through the camera with the wrong eye and telling me how blurry it was when she didn't even hit the shutter to focus :) So, I'm not sure I'll use this photo for my profile, but it can be my photo of the day. I guess...

157/365 - Jim - Posterized

( f/11 66mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Well, I wanted to try something different with my studio flashes. I put one on each side of my face about a foot away with a softbox on each of them. This creates a dark line down the center of my face which I have seen done by other photographers and liked. Unfortunately I didn't have anyone to take photos of, so I couldn't experiment very much and had to do a self portrait. It didn't look that great so I covered it up with an effect in Photoshop called patchwork. If ever I want to count the pores on my face, this would be the effect I use.

142/365 - Jim - Which way is up?

( f/16 28mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

I saw a similar photo a while back and thought I would give it a try. I looked at it right side up with my face upside down and it twisted my eyeballs in an uncomfortable manor. So I flipped the whole image and it makes it a little easier to look at even though it's still my mug...

057/365 - Jim - Canon 500D Close-up Lens

( f/18 150mm 1/125 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Theme is toy. This toy is my Canon 500D Close-up lens. I have used it with several photos on this blog. It goes on my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and I am able to get very close to the subject and zoom way in. I started out trying to take this photo myself, but it was so much trial and error that I finally asked my wife to help. She isn't the best with cameras and her patience level drops by the minute, but she agreed to help. I will just say this, one of us has not quite mastered our left from right...

014/365 - Jim - Self Portrait

( f/8 44mm 1/320 sec ISO 200 Nikon D300 )

Ok, this is actually two photos that were merged together. Here is how I did it. I hung this mirror from fishing line in front of the red wall that I used for the guitar picture. Then I focused on the center and took a shot at f/8 of myself in the mirror. This made sure my face was in focus. Then I moved the focal point to the frame and shot that at f/4.5 to ensure the red wall was not in focus. I merged the photos in Paint Shop Pro and removed the fishing line with the clone tool. It was way harder than I thought it would be, but I wanted to be creative...

So, today the theme is self portrait. It was also intended to give you a little background information about Matt and myself. My name is Jim Callender, I am 32 years old and married with 1 son. Not for long though, because my wife is due in December with our 2nd son.

I got into photography a long time ago when I purchased my first digital camera, which was the Minolta Dimage 7i. A couple years ago I then upgraded to a DSLR camera with the Nikon D40x. After a year of using that camera, I was totally addicted. I sold it and pre-ordered the Nikon D300. My addiction didn't stop there and I kept adding to my lens collection and studio flashes, etc...

For the most part I have mostly taken pictures of my son and posted them on his blog. This blog was created to jump start my photography and creativity skills. So far after only 14 days, I think it is working. It is also a learning experience and not a competition between Matt and I, even though some commenters have chosen winners :)

I work with Matt and one day he asked me what camera he should purchase. I totally confused him with my theories about camera addiction and if he really gets into it, then he should purchase a better camera so he doesn't want an upgrade in 6 months :) But he settled on a nice camera and is learning very quickly.

Thanks to everyone who is following and commenting. Only 351 more days to go.

014/365 - Matt - self portrait

( f/3.5 18mm 1/80 sec ISO 200 Nikon D40 )

welp... I don't have a tripod and my mom and dad were not home... so I improvised. Here's a little something about myself...

My name is Matt Smochko. I am 21 years old and just got into photography. I love it. I seem to love things that are a challenge and I hope to one day be a very good photographer. I am recently engaged and my fiance also has a love for photography. I wanted to do this blog so I can post my pictures and have people criticize them. I want everyone to be brutally honest...(well... don't be too harsh, i'm sensitive).

I also enjoy playing guitar, playing the drums, fishing, watching movies, tattoos :), and spending time with my fiance.

I also have a mole where my right side burn is and do not know how to properly post on this blog( according to Jim:) ). Thank you.